Generating Content: Planetside 2 will allow players to create their own missions

The landscape of a successful sandbox MMO is ever changing. Games like EvE Online and Planetside 2 are constantly receiving updates that add new features and open up new ways for players to experience the MMO. However, the most gratifying and indeed the most important content in a sandbox MMO is that which is created by the players themselves. Player generated content can bring about some of the best and most unscripted experiences ever in an MMORPG. Case in point, one recent player mistake in EvE Online lead to the game’s largest battle ever with literally thousands of players participating. Even if you dont play EvE, I suggest checking out the video linked above, it is quite the spectacle to behold.

Up until now the recent Planetside 2 updates have mostly been centered around adding new weapons, a vehicle, UI changes, capture mechanic adjustments and so on. All of this is great, but it hasn’t really opened up any opportunities for players to create their own content on a massive scale. That is unless you count filling the skies with suicide Galaxies. This is all set to change in August though, as SOE has unveiled through their Roadmap a new system whereby players will be able to generate their own mission hotspots that can be viewed by the entire Empire.

Available to players who have the appropriate squad command certifications, the mission system will ask for specific actions in specific locations, and then provide bonus experience for players that accept them. Unlike traditional quests, a player can only accept one mission at a time forcing the player to remain focused on the task at hand and presumably preventing them from skipping around to each mission locale.

SOE has provided a few examples of what missions may look like:

Air Strikes at location

XP bonus to ground kills/assists while in aircraft at this location.

Greatly increased gunner XP bonus (for Lib Pilots)

Greatly increased XP bonus for Sunderer kills.

Deployment to location

Large XP increase to deploy-bonuses.

Large XP increase to AMS spawn bonuses.

XP bonus for repairs to any deployment vehicle (Galaxy & Sunderer)

XP bonus to squad-deploy bonuses

Increased weight on Instant-action values

The variety of mission types will ensure that players who prefer to perform a particular role can find missions which fit that playstyle. Now if only there was a mission that granted experience for shouting propaganda at the enemy while blasting the ice-cream truck theme from my Sunderer.

Ignore the people talking garbage about this game just because their jealous that its popular and doing really well.
This new feature sounds awesome. More exp bonus, more certificates. all my friends rejoice, we got more things to aim for. Let the Epicness begin!

More problems lie within the people with vehicles rather then the weapons. It seems the more active the person is, the more they camp a spawn with a sniper or airship. I have seen people get up to 50 kills in 1 region and they did nothing important to the mission.

So many bugs and balance problems. Sadly, nothing will be done. They left PS1 in the dust. That game is fairly aged and not a single patch to helps problems since BETA. IT is SONY. Stay away, stay far away.

So rom what I’m reading here is players can basicly give oreders to other players and if a player follows said oreders they get bonus exp.Though it seems some people are mistaking it for the foundry on cryptics games.Guess it comes down to is this going to be some kind of misson editor like foundry or will players that meet the prereq create these missions while in game?If it’s how I’m understanding it then it can work for the game.

And PS2 can be considered a sandbox, a little. Sure it’s not completely “Hey we have this living world here, go do what you want with it with these tools” but to a point you are basically in control of HOW you want to play this objective taking shooter game.

For instance games like GMod, Minecraft, Sims (any) are Sandbox.

Games like GTA and Elder Scrolls are Open World. But you can argue that GTA is also a Sandbox as you can still do whatever the hell you want. Make your own goals.

Typically, for me, any game that has a strong story is Open-world. Any game where you use your own narrative as a means to accomplish something, Sandbox.

I really don’t see how this will fit into Planetside 2. In the end, it’s always going to be the same objectives, only arranged differently. Planetside 2 is not a narrative game like Neverwinter or STO, nor is it one whose setting allows for a great deal of creativity. Seriously, this sounds like a desperate attempt to pull the game back from the abyss where the media seem to place it (though the couple of times I checked in lately, it still looked pretty alive).

EXACTLY/ THis is just SONY marketing using fancy game terms to get new players toa dying game. This game is one of the most horrible FPS I ever payed. No skill. Just base cap with zerging whoever has most log ins wins …and that is active log ins. Sometimes you have entire army AFK…Seriously, how is this a game to AFK too???? I understand a MMORPG afk where you feel part of the game and people can inspect your armor and you do not need to wait for the load up screens…but AFKin in an FPS is the stupidest trend. I think SONY just has bots in there to make it look like the game is active. But if you pay attention, ther eis maybe only 5 dudes each side doing thins, while entire army is afk XD

Even if they’re not bots, at the very least 70% of players or more seem to be people who just recently decided to check out the game. It’s fine to have a good supply of newcomers, IF THEY STAY. In this case, though, they seem to come online, walk around for a while, confused, then decide it’s not worth their time and leave.
The remaining 30% are either people idling around clogging the server or the lucky few who actually do something.
Planetside has always struck me as a brilliant idea hampered by mediocre execution. I think that holds true for part 2.

Is this not always the case with Sony? They love to hype their garbage up all the time. They did it with the PS3, they did it with their “Move” which turned out to be a gimmick since only a handful of games even bothered to use it, and they’re doing it now with their PS4. Hype is exactly that–hype. A bunch fancy bullshit fed to millions in hopes that even a fraction of them are daft enough to believe it.

….They always believe it. I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.

With Sony? What the hell are you on about? It’s that way for EVERYTHING! What so you think Kinect, something that Microsoft is pushing and MAKING you buy for the xbone, was an amazing breakthrough idea? You can’t blame only Sony for trying something new and make money.

Nintendo does it too. Making 3-4 (I don’t even know anymore) different versions of the DS. Having a cool yet expensive as hell Gamepad. Also the fact that they maybe only have 3-4 franchises that they make you buy over and over and over?

Say what you want but that’s just how the world goes round. And if you think that all this happened just recently, it’d be best if you did not live on this planet anymore.

Also the damn update hasn’t even come out. Why are people already putting it down? Why because of the Foundry in Neverwinter? That’s something Cryptic had from their old game Champions Online. I was there when they introduced that. It’s a good idea but when you put it in the hands of players like you and I, well, that’s why we don’t work for a gaming company.

Now what SOE is doing with PS2 seems similar, but very different. Now they’re adding more ways to get EXP and such faster by adding player objectives. Mind you this was in the game already in a different form, with leaders pointing others to objectives. Though with this we’re now rewarded for actually doing those said objectives.

This isn’t Sony going “HEY GUYS WE ADDED THESE NEW THINGS COME PLAY”. It’s adding depth and short-term progression/reward to a game that is basically the same game over and over again. Now instead of JUST attacking a base you now have specific means of doing so, if you so wish.

As someone who plays the game off and on (Mind you I play for hours and hours when I do) I feel it’s a great addition that’ll make going from one place to another more meaningful than just, duking it out at The Crown.

I’d just like to point out that “everyone is doing it” is still not a valid defense. And while I’ll gladly dare Sony to prove me wrong, I am highly skeptical of whether this addition will translate in any purposeful way into actual gameplay practice.